Legault rejects idea of an inquiry, wants ‘action’ now

QUEBEC, Que. — François Legault says the government will strike a committee of cabinet ministers to come up with an action plan to deal with the aftermath of the devastating spring floods .

And while he has no objection to politicians studying the issue on their own, the premier says he doesn’t think Quebec can wait a year or more for their findings.

“I’m a results-oriented guy,” Legault told reporters as he arrived for daily question period at the legislature. “What I want in the short term is to have an action plan and take action and be ready for spring 2020.

“It’s urgent to get into action.” One day after Legault said he personally is “allergic” to sweeping forums and commissions of inquiry into such events because they move too slow, the Parti Québécois opposition returned to the theme.

PQ environment and climate change point person Sylvain Gaudreault told reporters he will ask the government to initiate a full scientific and technical inquiry into the flooding modelled after similar inquiries in the past.

He specifically mentioned the processes used to follow up on the 1996 floods in the Saguenay region and the 1998 ice storm that paralyzed Quebec.

The model for such events is the Nicolet commission, which followed both the Saguenay floods and ice storm. Both were chaired by the former head of Quebec’s order of engineers, Roger Nicolet, now retired.

Nicolet recently complained that many of his recommendations dealing with flooding — and particularly the safety of dams — were not acted on.

“What counts now is to have the right technical and scientific information,” Gaudreault told reporters. “Members of parliament know things but they cannot go into the field and take hydrological and climate tests.

“Such commissions produced results. Were the majority of the recommendations put in place? No. But such commissions give we elected officials the resources we need to continue questioning the government.”

Moments later, Quebec Environment Minister Benoit Charrette said he was not closing the door to the idea.